Hi folks, I just got back from Spain via Frankfurt on Lufthansa Airlines, here's the report.

Feb 1 10:30 pm
LH 453
A-340 300 (313X)

My wife and I met at my parents house who live about 30 minutes from LAX after work on a clear winter day with light off shore winds, A perfect night for flying.

We left my car at my parents and took a cab to the airport. The driver didn't enter the airport from Century Blvd so I missed the new lights and the LAX "Hollywood" sign, oh well. We check in with a very nice and pretty LH agent, I had worn a nice outfit in hopes of begging our way to first or business but my efforts were futile.

After a beer we boarded a A340-300 I couldn't see the reg. # but the name of the plane was Rein something, and by the looks of how new it was it was probably a 313x ...

The flight was only 3/4 full so I was eyeing out where I would move after take off. We taxied down to the south runways, sorry I always forget the numbers, and began our fairly long take off roll. We finally reached V1 and began our 10.5 hour flight to FRA.

The A340 is definitely the slowest climbing aircraft ever!!!! But at the same time a very beautiful smooth flying and comfortable airplane!
We were only at 18,000 feet by the time we reached Vegas 30 min. into the flight. The pilot told us we would be taking a direct route to FRA to take advantage of some fierce tail winds. This route brought us over Vegas, the Rockies and NYC then crossing straight over the Atlantic from there.

I took some Tylenol PM a little early and was dozing off during the first meal service, but let me tell you it was delicious! So far I was very impressed with LH. The flight attendants were very attentive and brought by water, juice and treats every half hour, I have never received service like this on any of my international flights on Virgin, Air France, BA, TWA or United.

The flight was pretty painless, I slept in one of the window rows over the wing and wasn't bothered by the light to moderate turbulence that plagued most of the flight. The A340 is a very smooth feeling airplane especially on or in front of the wing.

So far I am thinking if LH only had PTV's they would be a 10. Anyway after another tasty meal and 2 movies we start our smooth decent through light snow and make a smooth landing at FRA. The visability was very low and I was glad to feel the big A340 touch down.

FRA is huge and we scrambled to get our connecting flight to BCN. This flight was on a A319 and was packed. LH's domestic service is not as nice as their international. The A319 was a little shabby compared to the pristine A340-300.

Feb. 2 8:30 pm
LH 4328
A319

We boarded the plane and waited a half hour to be de-iced, once we were de-iced we taxied and began our quick take of roll to V1. The engines were very loud from where I was sitting (over the wing) They sounded a like a buzzing lawn mower, this was probably in comparison to the very quite a340. Fortunately we lifted off safely and began our quick climb to cruise which began our 1.5 hour flight to BCN

The flight was fairly smooth but unfortunately I had an aisle seat and couldn't see much once the weather cleared. I thought about asking for a cockpit visit but was pretty irritable and decided to do it on our return flights.
The flight was pretty bleak with the flourescent lighting on 10 and with an aisle seat I had nothing left to do but read my Harry Potter book, yeah I know I'm 31 but these books are addicting!!

The landing at BCN was smooth and we taxied to the gate. BCN is a really nice warm feeling airport, I will get more into this on my next report of our BCN-MAD flight.

Over all I was very impressed with the A340-300 (besides the power) and Lufthansa's service and professionalism. I am not to fond of the A319 it was very cramped and noisy. Next report will be from BCN-MAD on Iberia.

Tell more about the service on FRA-BCN. I am disappointed on Lufthansa's inter european service; only serving small plates with a few pieces of salad on flights of about two hours, and only a small cookie on one hour flights. I bet Iberia will be better. Last year I had a very nice small meal with a salmon sandwich on a 45 minute MAD-LIS flight and return.

Airsicknessbag- I actually thought Iberias service was as good as LH's domestic. I booked myself on an A320 and a 757. The 757 w/ RR engines was 6 months old and awesome!!

MEA-707 The return LH BCN-FRA flight on a A321 was a lot better. First I had a window seat, and second the crew was alot nicer and served a bigger meal, plus the A321 was a more enjoyable plane. I will post the Iberia report tomorrow.

I went from Alicante to Madrid and back last year, no in 99, it was a 727 and an Aviaco DC9 (31 yrs old) - "meal" service was one candy (no drinks), the planes were worn out and dirty and looking like they were about to fall apart, the stewardesses´ English was basically inexistant...
Daniel

Yes, it depends very much on the cabin crew; on all my LH flights there seemed to be one of those head nurse type condescending ladies with a severe attitude. But if you ignore them and only remember the 3 other friendly, helping and cheerful ones, everything will be perfect!